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Hasn't Tim Hornbaker just released a book, Death of the Territories. Aint read it so don't know how good it is or what exactly it covers but maybe worth a punt.

One I have read that covered various different territories is Mad Dog Vachon's book, from Canada to Texas and lots everywhere in between, it is a pretty good read. 

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Death of The Territories is decent but loses its way a bit towards the end.

Best book about that era is probably Pain and Passion by Heath McCoy covering the Stampede territory. I also like the later parts of Brisco by Jack Brisco, which is great on the experience of being a touring NWA champion, while Drawing Heat by Jim Freedman is good on the outlaw scene in that era,.

(Semi-regular reminder I've got more than 150 reviews at http://www.prowrestlingbooks.com/reviews-z/).

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18 hours ago, JNLister said:

Death of The Territories is decent but loses its way a bit towards the end.

Best book about that era is probably Pain and Passion by Heath McCoy covering the Stampede territory. I also like the later parts of Brisco by Jack Brisco, which is great on the experience of being a touring NWA champion, while Drawing Heat by Jim Freedman is good on the outlaw scene in that era,.

(Semi-regular reminder I've got more than 150 reviews at http://www.prowrestlingbooks.com/reviews-z/).

Cheers! 

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I'm about halfway through Kendo's book, and really enjoying it.

It's not particularly well written, so is a bit of a slog for the first couple of "ee by 'eck, I had it rough" childhood chapters before it gets into the wrestling, but after that there are some really fun stories, and fascinating stuff - it's still quite a shock how openly he's willing to talk about life away from the ring, about the logistics of getting about without revealing his identity, and so on. Given his spiritualist leanings, other than a mention of the name "Kendo Nagasaki" coming to him while meditating, I'm surprised how down to Earth and pragmatic he seems in the early stages of his career.

Because of who he is, practically everything that comes up is a bit of a surprise - I hadn't known where he trained, or anything like that, for example, and that's all an interesting story in its own right.

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a088fd103dd3f2526493d8aa5fd2c91ea9396c21

 

Not a wrestling book as such, but it's quite incredible. Ryan Holiday speaks to all the main players, including Hogan, and he comes up with an interesting thesis: more people should try to do what Peter Thiel did. As an old wrestling fan, I was somewhat interested in the Hogan trial when it was going on without paying that much attention, regrettably, to what was a huge story, but this book details the ins and outs of it and has the benefit of hindsight. There's even a great quote from Thiel about kayfabe that I won't spoil, but it's fascinating when you consider when it was said and what was at stake. The book also helps to explain Hogan's racism by putting it in context of how much his life had unraveled at the time, while not condoning it. I gained some respect for the big orange mentalist after reading this. It's the best book I've read in ages.

Edited by Brewster McCloud
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I got the Undertaker graphic novel for Christmas. It's a comic of the Undertaker character's life story.

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It's weird. Given the various retcons and nonsensical twists in Taker's character over the years, particularly as relates to Kane, it was always going to be a problem. But the comic somehow manages to make even less sense than the TV stories did. It also ignores various things that were pretty big deals at the time. There's none of Paul Bearer blackmailing Taker about the fire that killed Kane, for example, and nothing about Bearer being Kane's father or working for the family at all, and Kane's never mute - in fact, the week after Kane comes back from the dead and debuts interfering in the first Hell in a Cell, Undertaker pops over to Paul Bearer's funeral home to chat to an unmasked Kane, who is getting a delivery of coffins out of a lorry.

WWE_Undertaker_OGN_PREVIEW-9.jpg

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The quality of the art is very inconsistent throughout, which I've found to be common in the WWE comics I've seen (apart from Battlemania, which was the best one) and the artist and colourist sometimes get characters confused as well. Also some strange choices about what to devote pages to. I think the Bray Wyatt feud gets longer than the Shawn Michaels one.

I enjoyed its recreations of famous scenes and pictures from Taker's career, though.

WWE_Undertaker_OGN_PREVIEW-3.jpg

Also, it was a Christmas present from myself.

Edited by King Pitcos
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46 minutes ago, King Pitcos said:

I got the Undertaker graphic novel for Christmas. It's a comic of the Undertaker character's life story.

There's none of Paul Bearer blackmailing Taker about the fire that killed Kane, for example, and nothing about Bearer being Kane's father or working for the family at all, and Kane's never mute - in fact, the week after Kane comes back from the dead and debuts interfering in the first Hell in a Cell, Undertaker pops over to Paul Bearer's funeral home to chat to an unmasked Kane, who is getting a delivery of coffins out of a lorry.

I found this absolutely mad. It basically ignores some key parts and assumes you know it all, so doesn’t bother to recap, then some weird fantasy writing takes place and adds pointless & inaccurate accounts of the story we all watched unfold. 

It’s not great, but an interesting piece nonetheless.

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